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Monday, December 3, 2007

It Pays to Have an Opinion - Quite Literally

For quite awhile now I have been getting involved with many online survey programs, opinion based websites, etc. Being the Marketing Department for where I work, I understand how important it is to have feedback and how very hard it is to get anyone to actually give it you sometimes - even if you ask - several times. Usually no one is going to comment unless they are really perturbed about something or really blown away about how awesome it was. But those are skewed results, you are ALWAYS going to have those people at both ends of the spectrum. After having sent out a few surveys of my own at work and realizing how hard it is to get anyone to respond I try to be sure to participate in any of the surveys that are sent my way - surveys for events I attend, services I use, etc - because now I know how hard it is to get feedback and I know how valuable it is. Valuable not only to those collecting it but also to me. In fact, I signed up for an e-rewards program that actually takes your profile and finds different surveys that are relevant to you - and they pay you for each one you fill out - I am up to $60 in e-rewards so far! Now granted, I can only redeem this money as "points." For example, I can cash in $15 of my points for $15 in rewards bucks at Borders - BUT you can only do that once in a year - kind of a little snag there since I could easily use all $60 of my points at Border and there isn't really anywhere else I want to use my points. The other programs are kinda "eh" - for example, I can cash in $50 of my rewards bucks for 10% off a purchase of $200 or more at some jewelry place - not really something I am even remotely interested in doing there folks - but they are adding more ways to redeem your points all the time so I guess I will just keep adding up my moolah and pray for the day they add Starbucks Points or Target Points or something.

What brought this whole post on was something I got in the mail today at work. It was $5 Starbucks Card sent to me from a company whose survey I just recently filled out. I honestly cannot remember what survey it was or if I actually even filled it out but I am overjoyed at my shiny new card and a my free hot drink awaiting me at the closest Starbucks - Tazo Chi Tea here I come!

So next time someone asks for your opinion - give it to them - it is worth more than you think - literally.